Hello everyone, I could use some inspiration/ suggestions.
I absolutely love color bulbs , and swapped out every bulb with a color bulbs in the house. ( Mainly zwave , but testing matter bulbs now , kitchen bulbs are wifi and wife keeps turning off with the switch)
I want to be able to leave power on to the bulbs to be able to do different automations.
What are some switches that I can program that would tell the bulb to turn off vs switch power turning off.
I am aware for inovelli and doing the Z-Wave association ( which I like ) but since COVID I just can't get my hands on their equipment.
Any good wifi switches anyone suggest for this.
I already started a dedicated 2.4 gig access point dedicated to wifi items
I mainly prefer zwave devices , but open to WiFi or zigbee.
I need to be able to use a switch to tell the bulb to turn off because of the WAF.
I have these in my house. I don't have the "smart" bulbs, but I do have them controlling dimmers in my living room and bedroom. If you want to leave the switch on, put a switch locking tab on the switch. Then have the dimmer switch (really a button controller) control the lights. It will give your wife a physical button to push to turn the lights off and on and can also control dimming if the bulb supports it.
I don't see them on Amazon, but they may be available from one of the other retailers listed on the web site.
Edit: I did not see them on any site. They have likely been discontinued. However, there are some others out there. I can't say whether any of them would work for you, but it is an option that may have the WAF if you can find something equivalent.
It sounds like you didn't look when their new products (Blue and Red 2-in-1) were released. Pre-orders and general orders were available for a while, but it looks like both are currently backordered, and the only ones I see with a date are the Blue ones with an estimate for January. Unfortuantely for you if you want to use Z-Wave Association, those are Zigbee -- but the new Red Series, when available (again), should work.
(Zooz also has some that support the feature you need, as mentioned above. I prefer Inovelli for other reasons/features, but if this is your only concern, it should work.)
A remote, as also mentioned above, is a different option that could also work. If you want Z-Wave Association, the Zooz ZEN34 would be my recommendation. If you don't care about Z-Wave, Lutron Picos are hard to beat in every way except initial startup cost since you'll need the Pro Bridge or a higher-tier system to get started -- but after that... (without association, either can be configured like a regular button device in Hubitat, as could any device including the Eria remote above, which I have a couple of but can't stand to use on a regular basis since they seem to take a couple seconds to respond if you haven't used them in a while, possibly depending on your network topology).
Any smart switch that integrates with Hubitat can be used to control smart bulbs. It's just about how you wire it and features that are available. For instance, the house my wife and I bought last year has Treatlife (Tuya) switches everywhere. They work via the Tuya Cloud integration, and are fairly quick to control my Hue bulbs. If you wire the line and load together, but still power the smart switch, it turns the switch into something that just sends events to Hubitat. I then use Switch Bindings to bind the switch and bulbs together and it works well; though, I have since built enough automation that no one really uses the switches anymore.
With that said, I do not really recommend going this route with WiFi switches. I would look for things that send push events to Hubitat (Zigbee, Zwave, or Lutron) rather than relying on polling like WiFi does. If you really wanted to get WiFi, you would want something that connects via Matter to Hubitat. We finished our basement last spring and installed Lutron down there, so I'm in the process of revamping the rest of the house.
The final option is to use Hue buttons and devices that mount over your light switch. https://www.etsy.com/shop/TrueHueDesigns sells some awesome stuff that does not replace any of the switches, still allows easy access without needing to rewire, and the devices can integrate directly into Hubitat.
I have several of the z-wave and Zigbee Inovelli switches. I use them with smart bulbs and they work great. I haven't done any of the association stuff yet but need to rebuild everything soon so I'll look into it.
If you can wait the Inovelli products are worth it.
I was looking to try and stick with zwave , but now that I am running a dedicated 2.4 wifi only for smart devices , I am open to looking at other choices.
I also before inovelli because of other features. Once upon a time , I thought I would stick with all zwave bulbs , as I thought the reaction time with zwave association would be faster. but I am on the fence these days.
I was wondering about lutron system , if that would be worth putting all those switches in and see if I interface them with hubitat to tell the smart bulb to turn off.
Thanks for the zwave site , I am used to just going straight to their website , didn't even think to look elsewhere , the switches here are even cheaper.
My goal is to get to this automation point , but WAF wants the switches , and I can program them to do other things also. Some day I will be in the nerva ! Lol
WiFi switches will only work if they are connected via Matter to a C8 once Matter is formally released to everyone (it's currently in Beta testing). Further, you'll need to modify the wiring behind the scenes (tying line and load together) and using a Rule or app so that it works correctly.
I personally am going with Lutron but still need to modify a few wiring spots to make everything work. This is really a personal choice, but I preferred being able to walk into any Home Depot or Lowes that I needed to get what I wanted. Lutron is also a long time electrical manufacture with a history that very few can compete with. Inovelli and Zooz have an advantage of a smart bulb mode that disables the internal relay. Thus, no need to change the wiring; though, you'll need to look at their diagrams if you have any 3-way or more switches.
Disclaimer...if you do not understand wiring, please make sure to consult an electrician.
With the above said, assuming you have a neutral in your box, it's fairly easy to turn any smart switch into something that can control smart bulbs. Inside the box, you need to tie the line and load together and connect that to the line side of your smart switch. For the load of the smart switch, you'll cap that end. Then you just wire everything else like normal (ground to ground, neutral to neutral). What this wiring setup does is provide always on power to the smart bulbs and power to your smart switch. Then I use Hubitat and [RELEASE] Switch Bindings to connect everything together.
The advantage to Zooz and Inovelli is you do not need to tie the line and load together. Instead, you wire up the smart switch as normal and disable the internal relay (which in turn just makes the smart switch a button controller).
As for everything else, Hubitat serves as my automation controller with Google Home as our voice. I only share the smart bulbs to Google since if I turn on the bulbs, Hubitat will automatically turn on the switch to keep them synced.
I really try to avoid wiring bulbs directly to load, though it's been necessary in some cases. It results in a socket which can only be powered off from the breaker, and most people wouldn't expect that from a light socket, so it's a safety/maintenance concern.
It also means the light can only be turned on/off via the hub, and that's not good for disaster scenarios like hub failure. With smart switches, you may need to look up the arcane button sequence that disables smart bulb mode, but you can turn them off.
This right here is why folks really need to plan out their homes and have backup plans. With re-wiring, I only do that in common areas (never bedrooms) and use Hue bulbs connected to a Hue bridge. If Hubitat goes down, I can get the Hue bulbs on and off via its app or the Hue Dial that is on the fridge (also connected to the Hue bridge). Overhead lighting in bedrooms get smart switches and lamps get Hue bulbs connected to the Hue bridge (with Hue buttons for manual control).
If Hubitat goes down, I lose automation not control. The only time I've ever lost both Hubitat and the Hue bridge was due to a power outage and that is a completely separate issue.
Pre-orders and general orders were available for a while, but it looks like both are currently backordered, and the only ones I see with a date are the Blue ones with an estimate for January. Unfortuantely for you if you want to use Z-Wave Association, those are Zigbee -- but the new Red Series, when available (again), should work.
